GOVERNING SHUT DOWN?
In reflecting on what is currently happening in the United States government I begin that reflection process where I always choose to begin: how is what is happening out there mirroring something that I need to see in here?

Whenever I find myself in opposition to what is happening or to what someone else is doing I as quickly as possible pray to open to the lesson I need to learn. I pray to surrender and to open in order to release my own internal resistance. When two or more people with opposing agenda’s strive to have their own way a battle ensues and manipulations start flying. Human beings will employ every strategy at their disposal to be right and to have their own way. These are ego-mechanics that we all learn relatively early in life. They are functions of the reptilian brain and are foundational to everything from a marital spat to a deadly world war.

When we perceive we are not getting our way we feel threatened and retaliatory. We get triggered and we shut down. Walls come up and defenses get employed. This is literally automatic. Shut down is a primitive defense mechanism. It is hard wired in all humans. It was necessary at one time for our very survival. That is rarely so in our current human trajectory.

Spiritually awakening includes coming to recognize this automatic shutdown, and developing the capability of relating to it in such a way that we don’t employ our strategies, manipulations, and defenses. We become more skillful in our relating and in our negotiations. We become less invested in having our way and more interested in being the way. We become open to choosing connection over protection, cooperation over control, union over divisiveness. We choose staying open, or at least being willing to reopen when we find that we have shut down.

It is very literally a moment by moment choice as to what we allow to govern us. We will either sync into Spirit wisdom, or do battle from ego-mechanics. It is not a one time decision. It is a felt-dynamic that we learn to repeatedly open to and follow.

This is not to suggest that we don’t establish and maintain clear and appropriate boundaries. I am clear in what values I operate from. I will not allow violations or injustices to occur without speaking up and calling them out. I will just not choose to go to war over them. I will not choose to dehumanize people because they don’t agree with me or because they are pushing agenda’s that don’t resonate for me.

I live in clarity of what I allow to govern me, and I don’t have to shut down over what is governing others. I am letting my heart stay open because that is how I am choosing to live. I am being governed by Source God and not by ego shut down. And so I can watch what is happening out there from an open heart and with soft eyes.

I am choosing to open up as I observe others shutting down. This choice keeps me on track and responsive. It keeps me centered and able to contribute peacefulness to the whole on an energetic and spirit-level. As I watch what is currently unfolding I am praying that our state of being truly does become united. It will indeed as union becomes a priority over personal agenda. It will when we choose to be governed by what is common to us all, regardless of our politic or ideology.